It would be quite wrong to suppose that Catholics are obliged to withhold support from the Republican Party in light of its fiscal and social policies

Do Republicans Deserve Catholic Support?

by Rachel Lu

I can recall a time when I disliked being referred to as “a Republican.” Although I have consistently voted Republican throughout my adult life, I preferred to stress to friends and relatives that I was a Catholic and a philosopher, but that I had no special loyalty to any political party. Evidently this attitude is common among young people today. I also find it to be quite common among faithful Catholics I know, many of whom resent the Republican Party for one reason or another.

Once I began writing about politics, I had to overcome that particular aversion. Of course, the faith will always be enormously more important to me than any political allegiance. Still, as I slid more and more frequently into the persona of the pundit, I had to resign myself to a level of partisanship that would once have seemed distasteful to me. I understand perfectly, therefore, why friends and colleagues also sometimes prefer to hold politics at arm’s length.

There’s a reason, however, why pundits need to be partisan. It’s not because we’re undiscerning converts to the groupthink of The Party. It’s because our society is locked in a culture war, and to win wars, we need an army. To build an army, we need allies. A political party is simply a network of allies that work together to attain specified temporal ends. Understanding that, I can see now that spurning party association was in some respects just as form of daintiness. Remaining apolitical is a nicely painless way to avoid the taint of association. At the end of the day, though, it adds up to a refusal to help in the struggle.

Not everyone is called to invest himself intimately in politics, and for some it would be dangerous to do so. Great discernment is needed to work in non-ideal circumstances, finding politically effective messages without sacrificing personal integrity. Those of us who involve ourselves in political struggles ought to pray fervently that God preserve us, lest we betray the faith. I would be humbly grateful if readers would also make it a point, when reading a helpful or enlightening column from any (living) Catholic writer, to say a quick prayer for us that we might have that discernment. Politics is a dirty business.

Nevertheless, I am no longer abashed to announce publicly that I think it right for Catholics, in this time and place, to support the Republican Party.

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